Thursday, February 24, 2011

Kovalchuck and the resurging Devils. i posted it because i miss Topps Hockey. i know that i am probably alone in this feeling, but i miss the days when Topps put out all four sports. Maybe someday they'll do it again.

Monday, February 21, 2011

1988 Score was just fantastic. Keep in mind that this was their debut set. From 1981 to 1987, there were just the three main releases Topps, Donruss and Fleer. In 1988 Score came on the scene with a simple yet great looking set. Upper Deck would come along a year later to totally change the card industry, but in 1988 this set was big news.

i opened a BUNCH of '88 score and would love to rip some again someday.

Weather: 27, feels like 7 with the wind, clear and sunny
Did you walk today?: yes
If So, how far?: 3.25 miles
Weather During Walk: very windy and cold, tough walk
Overall Walk Performance: struggled
Current Mood: tired
How is your diabetes today?: eh
Fasting BG this morning?: 86

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Todays Graded Card of the day is one that most graded collectors have not only not likely seen, but certainly don't give a damn about.....even though they should.

The Big Unit's 1989 O-Pee-Chee. VERY tough card to find in a nice PSA grade. i was finally able to land one, and i had to pay dearly for it, but im glad to own own it and scratch it off my "O-Pee-Chee PSA 9 RC" Collection Want List. now if i can find a damn Chipper Jones lol

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

i love O-Pee-Chee baseball cards. i feel no shame in that fact. the one thing that i do not like however is that they missed the boat on a LOT of rookie cards during their time in the baseball card world.

This is good and bad i suppose. bad because it's lead to them not getting anywhere near the amount of love that they deserve in this hobby of ours. good because it keeps the prices down for collecting purposes.

O-Pee-Chee Baseball was depending on whom you believe, made at about 10% the press run of its Topps equivalent. Thats QUITE a difference when you look at it.

Anywho, the list of rookie cards that they missed during the 80s is as follows:

Weather: 25, 12 with the wind factor. VERY cold
Did you walk today?: yes
If So, how far?: 3.25 miles
Weather During Walk: VERY Cold, STRONG head wind
Overall Walk Performance: ok
Current Mood: ok
How is your diabetes today?: ok
Fasting BG this morning?: 81

Monday, February 14, 2011

Yes, Donruss is far away the "winner" in the land of 1984 Baseball Cards and their $6 a pop wax packs are testament to that fact.

But for some reason, Fleer is waaay ahead of Topps, to the tune of $2.50 vs $1.50 for respective wax packs.

1984 Baseball Cards did not produce any HOF Rookie Cards. The year does represent Don Mattingly and Strawberry Rookie Cards. Neither "lived up" to what they were "supposed to be", but i feel that Mattingly will one day get in.

So i have been thinking about why 84T has gotten the snub over the years. Lets look at the cards...

Here's the timeless Donruss:

Here's the Fleer:

Nice looking design, simple and clean looking. The cards do have centering issues throughout though.

Here's the Topps:

Clean design, team name in block letters, a nice head shot in the corner to go with the full sized pic. Was this "too much, too soon?" after having a similar layout in the '83 release?

Dont get me wrong, Topps being the bronze placer in this "race" means that the stuff stays cheaper, but you have to wonder why sometimes.

1981 saw the end of Topps long run as the only producer of MLB Sports Cards. Fleer had put out baseball cards before (1963), but Donruss never had before. The card stock is pretty flimsy and the pics are more blurry then clear, but i love 'em.

1981 Donruss was the first full box i ever opened. i was 9 or 10 (cant remember what time of the year they came out, 1981 WAS 30 years ago! lol) at the time, and my local Te~amo Candy store had a box of them, so i had to go home and get $10 to buy the whole box! great times. i miss those days.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

as i delve deeper into my 80's obsession, some things stand out clearer to me then others.

a quick recap.....having been burned out on anything newer then 1989, my current focus is to collect in PSA 9 slabs, one copy of each baseball HOFer (+ Pete Rose) that i saw play during their playing days, with a strong focus on 80's stuff.

here i should add that for the most part, i have all the "key" rookie cards from the 80s already, so that saves me some money, but also makes me have to make decisions.

Opening packs and sending them to PSA myself is naturally a big thrill, BUT it is also harder to do with the 80s stuff. Remember that back then there was no real care about quality control. add that fact with the slaughtering of many many trees to make the cards, and you have many many cards that have many flaws right out of the pack.

having opened some early 80s issues here recently, i can tell that getting self-subbed PSA 9's is not going to be all that easy to do. Sure, i'd like to buy them already graded PSA 9 (and am doing that for the most part), but there are some that don't show up on eBay, or worse yet (i suppose), they are listed, but the seller is delusional in their expectations of what kind of money they want for their PSA 9's

Saturday, February 12, 2011

i figured, why not make my First Hockey Card posted in this series be one that ive have for a very long time. Joe Sakic needs no explanation.

i've owned this slab since 1998. Things in the slab world were a LOT different in 1998. i paid $50 for it. this was at a time where an equivalent Jeter Rookie would top $1,000. Things changed, the market crashed and reality set it. is that a good thing? i would say "yes", but what do i know, im just a collector :)

Friday, February 11, 2011

Carmelo wants out of Denver, could be NYC or LA bound, we'll see in the coming weeks.

i won this one on eBay. i was the only bidder and it ran me 99 cents. the seller did not post a scan. their loss, my gain. if you know what you are doing and/or looking for, not having a scan for a GRADED card is not a big deal really. Collecting graded cards is not always about spending the big bucks, see? :)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

1986 Topps Michael Jack Schmidt. a classic picture of his follow swing in what is one of many many many pictures taken at lovely old Shea Stadium.

even as a Mets fan, i've always been a fan of Michael Jack Schmidt. i respected that he played his whole career with one organization. i wish more pros would do that, but money changes everything, so thats a no-go

1986 Topps will always have a special place in my heart. it was the first year that i (as a 15 year old) purchased a sealed case. it was a three-box Topps Rack Case, cost me $50. i still remember carrying it home on the public bus back in Queens, New York.

This year i am to turn 40, and one of the things that i want to do is open another one of those cases. they really dont cost much more then they did back in 1986, but they arent super easy to find.

1986 Topps is also a tough year to slab. the top border being black makes it subject to wear and tear 25 years later. Although the prices have come down on the high grade copies, 9's arent all that easy to track down.

Being someone that isnt a fan of buying raw cards, that leaves me to make some choices. for years and years and years ive been saying that BGS needs to fix their flips.

in my opinion (which im entitled to, as everyone is), this Bench flip (a flip for those that do not know is the material that shows what the grade is inside the slab) has horrible eye appeal when you put it next to their flips with "higher" grades:

now when you place PSA slabs next to each other, there is nice slab eye appeal and continuity, regardless of grade:

of course, one could feel that the PSA flip is "flimsy", but they are continous, which i really like.

ive said this many times before....its almost as if BGS is "punishing" a submitter of a card that is not "8.5 or better" by placing their card in an inferior looking slab, and thats a damn shame.

What BGS charges for their service is the same per card, so why cant they have flips made out of better material for cards graded less then 8.5?

Weather: 38, nice, cool, sunny
Did you walk today?: Yes
If So, how far?: 3.25 miles
Weather During Walk: clear and not much breeze
Overall Walk Performance: i took a fall on some ice last night and hurt my hip, so im struggling a bit today, but i got through my walk. took me about a mile to finally get loose. my hip did hurt the entire time, but less so as i went on
Current Mood: ok, some pain
How is your diabetes today?: ok

Saturday, February 5, 2011

I've been thinking about this some lately. For years and years the vintage
"line in the sand" has always been 1980. That makes some sense as that was
the last year that Topps was the only producer of MLB Baseball cards on the
national level.

But i think that there may be a need for some revision of this. i think that
it should not be as black and white as one year, and theres the line.

The Comic Book Genre has FOUR Categories: Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Modern.

All that bad stuff that has happened to the world, but Topps Baseball Cards, year in and year out, have been released. Thank Goodness for that for sure.

Have they always put out "amazing" sets? no, they cant all be zingers.

But when you think hard about it, there are only two years that really "missed the mark" in my opinion. Sure you can nitpick about any particular set, but really, 1986 and 1988 are the only years that they totally missed the mark. And really, if you want to break that down even further, 1988 is the only really "bad" year, as the '86 set has the tough black top border, plus it has Reggie Jackson. Also Carew's last card in the issue.

Could Topps have "done better"? sure, but that goes for any product. Sure they missed on rookies here and there (but the "Traded Series" saved them for the most part)

So it makes me laugh when i sit and read the current crop of Topps "haters" when they sit back and whine and complain about this and that, etc. Of course Topps COULD do better, but they could also do worse.

Baseball Cards are what they are. cardboard pictures of men. enjoy the hell out of your cards and collection. collect what you like.

So, congrats again to Topps for sixty consecutive years of issuing a Baseball Card Set.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Weather: 24, 15 with the wind. overcast.
Did you walk today?: yes
If So, how far?: 3.25 miles
Weather During Walk: COLD, windy, flurries
Overall Walk Performance: good
Current Mood: this head cold is annoying me
How is your diabetes today?: ok

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

on various message boards, we get people asking "What should i collect?"

so i thought id type something out

Find something that YOU like/want to collect.
Take that something, and be the best at it that you can be.

There are SO many things that one could collect, do NOT get caught up in trying to have it all, it aint gonna happen.

There will ALWAYS be someone that has SOMETHING "better" then you do. thats the way that life works.

FOCUS is SO key in this hobby of ours. Sure what you choose to collect might not be the latest/greatest/shiniest thing(s) out there, but whatever they are, are YOURS.

Thats something that is really tough to keep in mind.

My current focus is the 1980's and O-Pee-Chee Baseball. Both are FAR from what i would consider "popular" in 2011. Thats fine by me, i can talk about these things all day long, its just a matter of finding someone to listen ;)

Weather: high 30s, drizzle, no wind, VERY foggy!
Did you walk today?: Yes
If So, how far?: 3.25 miles + Target
Weather During Walk: Foggy, drizzle off and on, no wind
Overall Walk Performance: ok
Current Mood: head cold, cough = not happy
How is your diabetes today?: ok

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Ahhhh 1982 Topps Baseball. The year of Ripken. Topps also brought back the All-Star and "In Action" Subsets, as well as a sticker per pack.
Having those in the set made opening wax that much more enjoyable as far as star power goes when ripping.

on to the show...

Sadly, my pack did not have any star power. i did get a HOF sticker though, and back in the day, the Wallach was a "hit".

Weather: Absolute Crap. 33, rain/sleet, slush everywhere. crappy
Did you walk today?: yes
If So, how far?: 3.25 miles and then some shopping
Weather During Walk: crappy
Overall Walk Performance: crappy
Current Mood: tired
How is your diabetes today?: eh, this head cold has my numbers up